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simulation-machine · 3 months

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SIMS RELATED PROJECTS/UPDATES

My spring break is coming up in a week and holy crap do I have plans on plans on plans, especially since my summer is gonna be full of school + internship + HOPEFULLY friggin' graduating with a BA in Psychology so that I can start applying to grad schools.

Read more iffin' you'd like! It's long! Here's a picture of my golden retriever napping on her brother's food bowl to entice/entertain you:

god she is so precious i would literally kill for her

GOAL 1: MASTER GSHADE/ReSHADE

I know that some people are sticklers for this but my thing is that I had no gee-dee clue what I was doing with ReShade, whereas Gshade just kinda clicked and worked for me? That said I have a bunch of resources for learning ReShade so I might end up moving back to it at some point.

My main issue is figuring out the order of all the different effects. It obviously matters, I'm sure people smarter than me have tried to use presets only to be like "why tf does this look absolutely nothing like the baller screenshots this one cool Simblr has?" Annnd it turns out it's order + remembering to turn off certain graphic settings. Also photoshop, but that's gonna take a lot longer for me to figure out lol.

Like I'd been struggling to figure out why @gunthermunch's gorgeous Lithium preset wasn't looking as sexy as it did before annnnd it's because I forgot to turn Edge Smoothing off when switching to it. Jesus wept at how dippy I am sometimes.

Eventually, what I would like to do is maybe make my own preset at some point? I would be kind enough to show the effect order too if I did so. But this requires so, so much more shader knowledge than I currently have.

FUN FACT: My first ever degree was in art, I even went to a very fancy and private art school (School of the Art Institute of Chicago if you're curious)- I dropped out after one semester because uhhh that shit is expensive. Ended up finishing my degree at a much cheaper location in MN. That said, my art was 100% analog and 2D, and it turns out it did not translate super well into trying my hand at graphic art.

It's funny because I've been gifted really neat stuff for graphic art (like a really nice Wacom tablet and Adobe subscriptions), like people just expected my mixed-media ass would know what to do with it. NOPE! But yeah, Sims is sort of my excuse to try my hand at this stuff again, especially since I have a bit more energy now that my soul is not regularly being drained out of my body by customer service and tech support jobs.

GOAL 2: GET CRACKIN' ON ANOTHER DOOR

This one is hard because I am only on Gen 2 of the Orsons and it's sort of hard to justify starting up another story while that one is less than 1/5 of the way done.

THAT SAID, I don't plan on posting Another Door until I have a decent chunk of it done. Since it's not a casual gameplay story nor a legacy challenge, I plan on editing the bajeez out of the screenshots for it, really honing in on the aesthetic. I want it to look and feel very different from my random legacy challenge.

Fortunately, this story has been fucking up my sleep schedule for *months* now and I have a lot of the writing for it done. The hard part is translating that into the Sims, making sure I get the right poses and stuff, maybe even learning how to make some super easy CC (like, posters and stuff), and stuff related to GOAL 1 above.

What I'm saying is that it's going to take a bit. But I'm super serious about sharing it because it's my obsession and honestly the first time a story of my own design has possessed me in literal years.

Also, I want to make sure I have a significant backlog of the Orsons before I start seriously simming for it, because I don't want to screw over my favorite little pixel babies. This legacy challenge is going to be the one, I have done so much to keep my save files to keep it safe from harm (ask me how many backups I have of the save files. JK don't, the number is frankly silly).

GOAL 3: START YET ANOTHER MASSIVE CC PURGE

Y'all, my CC folder for this game is honestly an embarrassment. I go so hard on CC shopping because this community is stupid-talented and I like giving my pixel babies nice things and cool looks. When I'm bored and not quite in the mood for gameplay, I just like making neat-looking sims that I do absolutely nothing with because I love fucking around in CAS.

I have built my own PCs since I was 17 years old, and when I first built COMPUTERMACHINE (current rig) back in the autumn of 2018, it was with the goal that it would run Sims 4 flawlessly no matter what I did to it. It's got ridiculous amounts of RAM, I religiously update parts for it. And to be fair, even with the current 6,907,907,890 TB of CC I have atm it runs better than Sims 3 ever had with a measly 50 GB of CC.

But for me, it comes down to finding all the stuff I wanna use. Making myself get rid of the stuff I don't wanna use. Straight up yeeting the CC that I thought was going to look incredible that uh, didn't deliver.

I do CAS CC purges about once a year but have literally never done it for Build & Buy stuff, because OMG some of this shit I've had since 2014. Like when Sims 4 first came out. YIKES. My CAS CC obsession is notable but it's honestly nothing compared to my Build & Buy. Even before For Rent made building lots slow af, my PC was starting to take a solid minute to switch to different buy categories.

It would take a long af time so I want to make sure I have a bunch of content in the queue before I do it. It's gonna be a whole ass thing and be so, so boring to do. So I'm putting it off for when I have a ton of time to do it. Like, oh, my entire Spring Break?

GOAL 4: MAKE A FRIGGIN' RESOURCES LIST ALREADY

This would obviously need to wait until after GOAL 3 is completed, but I wanna make sure the awesome creators whose stuff I use get credit, and that people know where they can grab neat stuff. It would include not only CC but mods, Gshade/ReShade presets, and maybe even lots and sims I've downloaded from the gallery?

(Since I am super anti-paywall and very unapologetic and rude about it, I will also share where one could perhaps get some of these CCs without paying some dip a Trenta Starbucks Unicorn Frappucino amount of $$$)

It's ambitious as hell because *gestures vaguely at GOAL 3* but it would make things like doing WCIF asks and lookbooks so much easier.

Somewhat relatedly, I wanna make a navigation post, especially once Another Door starts getting posted. That story is gonna be a bit huge with multiple arcs that take place over the course of like, 14 years. Plus once the Orsons get to the 4th+ generation, it would be easier to track things down.

IN CONCLUSION...

I have been having so much fun sharing my silly little Sim adventures on Tumblr, so much more than I ever thought I would! You all have been so great to me, and all of this stuff is sort of a way for me to repay that. Ever since I stopped being able to be artistically creative ever since a really nasty depressive spell in 2017, Sims has been my #1 artistic outlet. And having people who are even somewhat entertained by my pixels is incredibly motivating.

Basically, if you read all of this, DAMN would you have been a rad livejournal follower of mine circa 2007. On the seriousness, however, thank you all so much for being rad and encouraging and sweet. I promise to do you all, if not proud, then at the very least not disappointed.

Time to hit the bong and take some pictures of Lou and Tatertot before taking my IRL doggos on a walk~

#sort of an announcement #future plans #sims 4 gameplay #tales from the irl #i love the sims community so much #promises i plan to deliver on (eventually)#playing with photoshop again #talking 'bout doing another cc purge again #posts so long you'll unfollow me (i will not blame you)#tl;dr: folks i'm gonna be doing some stuff #anyways... *bong rips*

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free-simblr · 1 year

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I don't want to be mean to you, so I am going to try to put this kind of gently. Malware isn't necessarily a virus. Viruses, worms, and malware are all different things. I appreciate you trying to correct your mistake, but gshade is malware at this point because the dev intentionally programmed malicious code. Full PC restarts can do thousands in damages to encrypted drives or any other systems connected, and keep in mind this was all to punish a teenager specifically. This shows explicit aggressive, malicious behavior, which is a pattern with the dev of GShade. Even if it wasn't, even if it was patched out, GShade still contained malware and it is not misinformation to state such. A virus would be misinformation, but you said Malware in your post not virus, and viruses have the intent of infecting as many machines as possible, whereas malware is any malicious code injected into a program. He had already intentionally made his FAQ hard to read (Intentionally long and condescending towards the user asking questions) on the gposers website, and uninstalling using windows utilities / the uninstall button does not completely remove dll files in your game folder, which remain being executed on game launch. I don't personally know what these do, but the fact that many files remain on your computer, with his now history of being malicious towards the user, is sketchy at best. His fork of ReShade also did little more than package a few shaders together to my knowledge, which is a pretty scummy thing to just add files and not modify the original program in any significant way to close the source. I tried to write this politely and concise so please let me know if you have any questions or need anything, and I'm sorry for the way others are acting towards you.

hi! you are not being rude at all, but i would like to state that we did change our language to saying that the program didn't contain a virus in the end when it became more aware that the program was basically reduced to malware. this is also why we eventually encouraged people to do the switch over to reshade since the program could cause harm to your pc, which we eventually also said in a follow up post.

there's nothing we can do to stop the spread of the post that we originally posted, deleting will do nothing but remove us as the source of it but it will still circulate. this is why we made an additional post updating the situation when we eventually had more updates and even linked to a post that contained more well-worded info than what we put out.

do not worry! this is polite, and i hope we come across as polite as well and don't have attitude. but we also want to make it well known that we did correct our info to state that it wasn't a virus but the program/dev eventually was malicious and could cause harm if he really wanted it to.

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dnallohleoj · 9 months

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I think the thing that fucks me up about Unity's move the most is that they absolutely know for a fact that most in-development games cannot afford to change engines. Unity sucks, it always has, any time I have been forced to use it, some terrible internal system I had to spend a ridiculous amount of hours learning last time has been deprecated and replaced with something that's better on paper but since they didn't actually finish it, it's worse.

That being said, it is currently the only free-to-use, lightweight, and beginner/educator-friendly game engine on the market with a clear path to console ports.

Unreal Engine is easier to use and also has a clear path to consoles, but it's a massive file to install, requires a $1.5K computer from the current year to run it without having to adjust a million internal settings, and there's a limit to how low it can go with a port unless you're willing to rewrite the shaders in the source code yourself. While it can do 2D, it'll likely make them ridiculously hardware-intensive, and that's no good.

It's just a matter of time before Godot catches up with more established engines at the pace it's developing, but if you try and make a game in it right now, you're looking at a significantly more time-consuming and expensive process trying to get the game on consoles.

GameMaker is kind of a sad tale because of all the ones I mentioned, it was actually developed with education in mind, but their pricing system has become more aggressive and predatory over time. Its current pricing plan requires you to pay $50/yr just to port to DESKTOP! and it goes up from there.

RPG Maker (doesn't matter which version but let's be real, for most of y'all it's 2003) is super easy to use, but because of the programming language it uses, in order to port a game made in it to console, the amount of extra work you'd need to do would be better spent rewriting the game from scratch in Unity, which, uhhhh..... Again, no 3D.

Construct used to be good, but now the entire engine has to run in your browser and there's not a desktop version anymore. You also have to pay $130/yr for the ability to port to DESKTOP! Again, no 3D. The only upside over GameMaker is that you can publish to web for free, but god help you if you try to monetize without paying them.

CryEngine seems fine, but it also has a steeper learning curve and I basically never hear about people using it. I guess that doesn't mean they don't but then again, up until this point, there were two better alternatives. Now there's just one and a runner-up, so we'll see. Could also be that they start asking you to pay them faster than Unity or Unreal did, I have to imagine that plays into it.

These are the most popular alternatives to Unity I know of. Some of them are fine, others will get better, most have no redeeming qualities, but if you're an indie studio maybe making your first mid-budget game, switching would require sacrificing something huge, and I'm not just talking about the wasted man-hours in an engine that you can't afford to use anymore. For all its faults, Unity was at the perfect intersection of features that made its functionality issues worth looking past.

And make no mistake - Unity knew that from the start. They knew that even if people jumped ship, a lot of upcoming games couldn't afford to, and what happens to them post-release isn't Unity's problem. The plan has always been to hold those developers hostage. I think the only thing they didn't anticipate is games like Cult of the Lamb or Among Us deleting their existing games, but considering how Steam and the console stores work, I doubt they're too worried about that, either.

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

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Dream SMP Recap (March 17/2021) - Ranboo’s Story

Everyone is building on the Dream SMP today. Phil works on his projects in the Arctic, Foolish continues construction on the massive mansion, Niki works on her underground city.

Ranboo takes some time to do something else: tell his entire story as it stands so far, in preparation for what’s to come.

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VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Hbomb94

Foolish

Tubbo

Philza

Ranboo

Hannah

Niki

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- Ponk meets Niki at the Community House. She notices his red eyes.

- Niki leads Ponk to her haven city for a tour. Ponk thinks it’s a pyramid scheme. Maybe a cult.

- Ponk asks if there’s a jail in this city.What happens if someone does something bad? Niki explains that they just get thrown out. She’s friends with some powerful people.

Ponk: “Look. With friends come conflict, Niki. Just remember that. Wilbur was Tommy’s friend, look what happened! ...So I’d be careful who you trust. But I may be coming back here soon, maybe to join you.”

- Ponk says his goodbyes and leaves the city. Definitely a cult.

- Tubbo visits Michael and decides to plan out what rooms he wants for the mansion. He speaks with Foolish to discuss the layout.

- Tubbo and Foolish work on the mansion

- Hbomb logs in and chats with Niki as she works on the underground city.

- Phil works on the Syndicate room.

- Ranboo shows Phil the infested stone he collected

- Quackity whispers to Phil “Look Gorgious” and leaves

- Phil keeps working. Foolish calls him over to Snowchester.

- Foolish tells Phil the mansion is for Michael and Phil points out Michael is tiny.

- Foolish shows him the list of requests

- Phil gives Foolish “fool’s gold” (honey)

- Phil visits Foolish and puts on his canonical glasses (shaders)

- They go back to the Prime Path and put on creeper heads to become Sam.

- They briefly visit L’manhole and Phil tells Foolish he used to live there.

- They go scouting around Eret’s castle and then head back to the Arctic.

- Before Foolish can come into Phil and Techno’s territory, Phil asks Foolish how he feels about government. Foolish says he’s neither pro nor anti. He’s never been a part of a government, since all that ended before he joined the server.

- Foolish does his shift dance. Phil throws him some real gold.

- Foolish leaves and Phil continues working

- Phil does acid (shaders) in L’manburg

- He explores the bottom of the crater. Phil feels no regret about what happened.

People can’t be replaced, but things can. As someone who’s been around for a long time, who’s seen people pass over hundreds of years, people are so much more important than possessions as a result of that.

- He’s lived for so long he’s forgotten for how long, but at least hundreds of years.

- Phil’s known Techno since Techno was young.

- Foolish returns to the mansion. He speaks with Tubbo about the layout again.

- Foolish commits arson on James

- Niki accidentally dug into the Kinoko Kingdom library while working on her city. It will either be the spark of a beautiful friendship, or a war.

- Her Syndicate name is Nemesis

- After more work in the Nether, Phil goes to Niki’s underground city for a visit.

- Niki gives him a tour, and Phil drops off the quartz

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Ranboo’s Lore Recap: The Story So Far

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Ranboo logs in at Spawn. He went outside, punched some trees, got killed by Dream a couple times (non-canonically), got a tour from Niki.

The next day, he got a tour from the President of L’manburg, who asked if he was going to run for President. Ranboo decided to live in L’manburg. He shaped Ranboo’s beliefs at the beginning, that L’manburg was good. They went to the Nether and found Michael, and put him in a boat.

Then, they were approached by Tommy, who told them about his plan: to grief George’s house. As they walked over, Niki and Puffy (on their date) were there. Ranboo and Tommy asked for Niki’s armor and went over to George’s house to do it. They ran off after burning it down by accident.

Niki and Puffy knew it was them and asked, but Ranboo realized…he didn’t remember.

Dream started building a wall around L’manburg, and they didn’t know why. He showed them George’s house. It got blamed on Tommy.

During the trial, Tommy stood up for Ranboo and so Ranboo didn’t take the blame, as he had bad memory.

They decided to meet with Dream and created the Meeting Hall, and for the meeting, Ranboo became the minutes man of L’manburg.

There was a pig guy watching them during the meeting.

The meeting didn’t go well; Tommy used Spirit as leverage to get Dream to take down the walls, but then Dream stopped and told them he didn’t care about Spirit, only the discs.

There was another meeting set up. Ranboo realized writing stuff down to remember it was a good idea, so he created the first “Do Not Read” book.

He watched from the ground as the cabinet met with Dream on the wall. Ranboo saw Tommy being taken away for some reason — he’d been exiled. Ranboo felt guilty.

Back in L’manburg, things were going great! Ranboo had a house now, pets…but the guilt remained. Ranboo visited Tommy in exile a couple times, and things seemed off, so Ranboo wrote letters to him to try and help.

One day, while writing in his book, starting an ice cream shop with Fundy…he was approached by this fellow named Quackity. Quackity told him about this wanted pig guy, Technoblade, the reason everything was gone — Techno was a traitor, and Quackity had plans to get Techno and bring him to justice.

The first Butcher Army meeting was held. Ranboo was a bit confused, but decided to help, because betraying someone’s pretty bad. So they all went off to fight Technoblade. Quackity got a horse named Carl, and Techno surrendered, and though Ranboo thought there’d be a fair trial, there was just an execution. Techno miraculously survived, ran off, and Quackity was killed.

While this was happening, Phil — who had saved him from lava one time when he was trapped — was apparently helping Techno, the traitor. So L’manburg put him on house arrest, and he wasn’t happy about that. Ghostbur called Ranboo an “Aaron Burr” and went with Ranboo on a trip to then snow…to Techno’s place.

Ranboo still had Techno’s armor, Techno tried to kill him, then Ranboo gave all his armor back. Someone else was there was well — Tommy.

Ranboo wrote all of this down in his Memory Book and returned to L’manburg, told them that he had no idea where Techno or Tommy were…at which point Ranboo realized…he’d just betrayed the entire Butcher Army.

The next few days, Ranboo kept seeing Techno and Tommy around with a lot of dogs. He continued to write things down, being kind of on both sides. Ranboo decided he couldn’t choose and instead would help everyone.

Things were going fine. L’manburg was planning a Festival to kill Dream, as Dream would finally respect the laws of L’manburg and attend with no armor. Ranboo made a trident game.

At some point, Ranboo created a fake memory book that got burnt by Skeppy around Christmas during Skeppy’s sister’s visit.

Before the Festival, Ranboo realized he’d lost his Memory Book. He found it in a chest…but that wasn’t where he’d put it. How did it get there?

Ranboo created a panic room out of obsidian, a place to reckon with his morals, a place to think. The water created white noise that helped him think. It was there that he decided to stop choosing sides, and start choosing people.

The day of the Festival, Ranboo secretly met with Techno and Tommy in Purpled’s Skull Base. Dream arrived and started building the wall again.

Dream led them all over to the Community House, and they all saw that it was completely destroyed. It was apparently Techno and Tommy, who shortly arrived. Tommy and Tubbo fought, Dream asked for Techno’s help to blow up L’manburg the next day. Then, Dream told them that Ranboo was a traitor. He gave Tubbo a little book — the first Memory Book.

Ranboo thought he had the Memory Book on him. How could it have been switched? He opened up the one he had, but…all that was left was a smile. And that smile symbolized his betrayal. This was the second Memory Book, the replacement.

At the announcement of Doomsday, everyone somewhat banded together. Ranboo gave a speech, that if they kept trying to save L’manburg, it would just keep causing problems. People were looking at Ranboo, the eye contact made him aggravated, he lashed out at his friends.

He went back to the Panic Room, started talking to himself, thinking about what he would do. Would he help or not? It was at that point that he began to hear something — something that was Ranboo…a voice. A voice that sounded like Dream. It told Ranboo the last thing he wanted to hear: that by trying to help everyone, he’d betrayed everyone. Ranboo didn’t believe him, thought he’d only given the armor to Techno. The voice left, and Ranboo decided the best thing he could do was help. Help the people who helped him: L’manburg.

He was still missing something: the first Memory Book.

It was time for Doomsday. The dogs, the Withers, the explosions all started, and L’manburg went. The people who’d been for L’manburg suddenly switched. But out of all of this, Ranboo heard something. He heard Techno ask, “What’s this ‘Do Not Read’ book?”

Ranboo ran to Techno, who gave it to him and told him to run. Techno showed him mercy.

Ranboo talked with Fundy after, he’d hurt Fundy. Ranboo talked with Quackity, who seemed to forgive him, because he’d read Ranboo’s Memory Book. He’d been the one to have the book, and he read it.

Ranboo visited the Panic Room, not knowing what to do…

Someone came and asked if he was okay: Phil. Phil offered him a home with himself and Techno, and they got along.

He thought he was safe, and everything was good, and that’s when he heard a disc: Mellohi, from someplace very far away. It was from the Panic Room, so he went back. He took out the disc, and an old friend came back: the voice. This time, the Dream voice told him that he was more of a traitor than he thought. It told him that he’d been helping Dream this entire time, he just didn’t remember. It told him he blew up the Community House. But the voice wasn’t Dream, Ranboo figured it was just a voice trying to fill the gaps between his memories. It told Ranboo to mine a block, behind which were two pieces of TNT.

Ranboo kept chilling with Techno and Phil, build himself a place to live. It was at this time that Tommy and Tubbo were planning on trying to get their discs back.

For a while, Ranboo lived in solitude. For the first time in a while, he was happy. He decided he was done living in fear of the Dream voice, and went to confront it, to tell it that there’s no way he helped Dream. The Dream voice told him he had one of the discs. Ranboo thought there was no way, so he went back to his house and searched, and dug up a chest with the Cat disc inside.

Ranboo realized that something was going on. He realized he’d been sleepwalking, of sorts.

Something happened: Tommy and Tubbo were going to fight Dream. Everyone thought they were probably going to die, and…what happened after that?

Dream was put in prison, Ranboo started to be able to pick up blocks, and Ranboo decided to call this state: Enderwalking.

Everything seemed fine, besides the giant Egg. The prison was open for visitation, and Ranboo had a good idea: what if he visited Dream? Everything went normally, except Dream told him exactly what he didn’t want to hear: that apparently, he and Dream had been talking in his Enderwalk, and Ranboo was one of Dream’s best friends. Dream handed Ranboo his own Memory Book. The entire chest was full of Memory Books. The prison started to crumble, Dream disappeared and then…Ranboo guessed the entire visit had just been the Dream voice but…worse. He decided to keep his head down for the time.

Ranboo needed to visit the prison again, but for real this time, to actually get closure. He went up to Sam, made his way to the lobby, and told Sam it was his first time visiting — which he thought it was. Sam thought he was joking around. Sam told him that he’d visited before…the Enderwalk. Sam showed Ranboo the books, and they were written in Enderman.

Sam told Ranboo he had a book on him — Ranboo now had a third Memory Book, but there was nothing in the books about any visit.

There must have been a fourth book.

Ranboo, to this day, still does not know where that fourth book is. This fourth book…it wasn’t a Memory Book. It was a book of the Enderwalk.

So for the time being, Ranboo tried to work against the Enderwalk, but nothing worked. So…he was just kind of living. His beacon disappeared, his tools kept getting to low durability randomly. He didn’t know why. He just decided to stop getting involved in things and just keep living.

Ranboo visited Snowchester, he did cool things with Techno, he was happy.

Then, he got married for tax reasons and decided to build a hotel to rival Tommy’s with Tubbo.

Then, one day, after saving Michael, after everything, they received news: Tommy had died. And Sam had just let it happen.

Another day, in his house, Ranboo decided he should just relax. He saw Niki outside and wondered what she was doing there. Techno offered him a place in an anarchist organization called the Syndicate. Ranboo decided to join, he told them that Tommy died.

Then Tommy was alive. Somehow he was alive.

Ranboo was brought to a room with two shrines and a hallway with a place for everyone's treasured items. He started to remember, started to hear things. Dream had a revive book. Tommy and Tubbo didn't die because everyone went there and saved them, but Ranboo didn't remember this.

Ranboo realized that Dream had to be stopped before he brought back the villains, and...then he'll finally be happy. He has Michael to protect now.

He was hanging around with Tubbo when they were approached by Tommy, who had the same idea. Ranboo agreed. They began to build a watchtower, Ranboo spoke with Ghostbur, who didn't seem like he wanted to go.

And now? Ranboo is trying to figure out a way to kill Dream. But there's also a larger issue to figure out.

He figures that Dream gave him a set of instructions while he visited the prison in the Enderwalk, and Ranboo needs to find a way to stop the Enderwalk.

It hasn't happened in a while, right? Maybe he already has.

So now, Ranboo is figuring out the Enderwalk and protecting Michael at all costs, even if he might have to lose a little bit of life…

And that is the story so far.

[This story was told as c!Ranboo — not really, but if Ranboo could collect his entire story and tell it. So some things have been left out.

For example, Sapnap giving Ranboo the message…]

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Upcoming events remain the same.

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts

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subwalls · 3 years

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Tales from the SMP Presents: The Pit

Another Tales, another Kingdom Hearts comparison post! “The Other Side” is a mix between the soundtrack The Other Promise and the cinematic “Another Side, Another Story” (both of which come from Kingdom Hearts, of course), which evokes a very specific KH character that... yeah. So let’s get into it.

Karl gets stabbed by the king’s new general and finds himself back in the Inbetween. A cool new logo pops up as we enter the Inbetween, which actually is a... very typical example of a Kingdom Hearts world logo / intro card / name card? I honestly don’t know what it’s called, it doesn’t have a name, it’s just a thing that happens every time the character enters a new world.

Castle Oblivion is just one (1) example, but if you just look up “Kingdom Hearts worlds” and scroll a bit, you’ll see what I’m talking about, haha. This doesn’t really change anything, it’s just another little wink and nod to the Kingdom Hearts series.

... Except, of course, the fact that there’s a title placard for this world implies the existence of other worlds. Which we eventually find out is, in fact, true. Fun! There’s a number of associations I could make based off the aesthetic of the logo (the castle reminds me of Radiant Garden, etc) but honestly they’re not worth much without more information.

So, the Inbetween is vividly aware of Karl’s straying from “the path”. It makes a huge attempt to still be pleasant and “nice” and whatever, but we can tell quite obviously that there’s an undercurrent of threat under all those pretty quartz blocks and smiles :]

Speaking of the :] smile, the reveal of Quackity’s previous lore stream actually doesn’t push me to think that it’s directly related to him in any way. It’s not impossible that c!Quackity achieved such heights as... becoming? The Inbetween? Because he’s got reason to be invested in Karl’s powers and keeping him in line. But it’s a reach or long-term thing at best, honestly, so I’m shelving the Quackity-smile association until further evidence appears.

(I could go bonkers and say that this is the culmination of c!Quackity’s ascension after ripping Information out of Dream or even XD, but that’s well into AU territory, so it’s all just shrug emojis for now.)

Which, of course, leads to the question of who that smile actually is associated with, and I think as clear an answer as we’re going to get is... The Inbetween itself. Clearly.

There’s a lot of meaning I could take from that; is it associated with Dream or XD then? Or maybe is it tapping into Karl’s memories of c!Dream doing the :) thing and it’s appropriating that for itself? Why? To intimidate Karl into obeying it?

Mayhaps. Mayhaps!

Anyway, Karl goes up to the tree, and as he approaches, the video feed distorts as the game abruptly switches to a higher-level shader like BSL or something.

Now, I haven’t confirmed it, but the way the audio shifts makes me think it suddenly started playing backwards, too. It’s just the way it sounds; it’s got that... sucking effect that’s pretty typical of musical tracks played backwards.

Karl swims down to the hidden room, which is very dark now. There is a book that tells him to go up the ladder for a surprise.

Also, by the way, I’m back on my wither rose pot association brainrot, because I can’t help but notice that there isn’t one here. There was one in the previous Inbetween segment, but it’s gone now. Now there’s a new book with the :] smiley, which of course should set the audience on edge, since we just saw the first book use it in a... mildly threatening manner.

We know that in Dream SMP it’s a pretty common thing to use redstone as blood. Other characters have used it in bits, some more seriously than others, and I think that’s what this room is trying to emulate.

If I had to guess, I’d... hm.

A part of me wants to say that the blood is probably from the different versions of Karl wandering around. Nobody’s going to notice if a few abruptly take a swerve to bleed themselves out in a room or something, right? But that carries a lot of implications, namely that of control so perfect it borders on possession. So either the Inbetween can control Karls, or it has some other agent capable of dragging something into this chamber to bleed it all over the room.

Neither of those options are particularly nice, I’ll admit!

There’s no Kingdom Hearts associations here, by the way. Due to being so closely tied with Disney, KH is deathly allergic to portraying blood in any way lmao. Not so many messages carved into the walls.

Or painted onto the walls with blood, if that’s what that is. Color correction gets a bit odd with shaders, so I’m not saying anything for certain; the closed books don’t look enchantment-purple, for example.

What does catch my eye are the torches, which will later be the flickering lights that guide Karl to the portal. The fact that they are here makes me think that this was definitely the scene of either a battle or some other conflict between the two sides to this story (haha, get it, Another Side, Another Story, because that’s a Thing in KH—), or at least proves that an influence from The Other Side was here at some point in time.

Karl quickly gets the fuck out of there, and when he swims back to the surface the shaders/music switch back to normal.

Oh, and for all you people who like to point fingers at anything vaguely false and scream “that’s gAsLiGhTiNg!!!1!!111″ about it, here’s an actual attempt at gaslighting. Note the language used here: “Your mind seems to be playing tricks on you :]”. It’s explicitly trying to convince him not to trust his own senses and mind. It’s saying, let me think for you. And that is a very dangerous thing.

Wither rose pot exists again, yay. Definitely a Inbetween voice, this book.

More wither rose book, this time in the, uh, grand entrance hall? The lobby? Yeah.

This book basically goes on a spiel about how the Inbetween is so great for Karl (a declaration, by the way, rather than a hope) and says that he is doubting himself or being less like himself, which is odd, because what he’s really doing is doubting the Inbetween and the path it has laid out for him. In a way, by questioning the Inbetween, Karl is being truer to himself than anything else.

The malicious way this place frames its words becomes more and more obvious with each passing page; it again reminds him that it’s a place to be “feel at ease”, which is super sketch that it has to tell him outright rather than actually being that place. It continues attempting to gaslight him, telling him that his imagination is getting away from him and that he can’t trust himself or anything else but this “path”.

I’ll get back to the “path” thing in a minute, but I really want to drive home that this is the truest instance of gaslighting we’ve ever had on the Dream SMP. Nothing has ever so clearly declared that it must be trusted over the victim’s own senses, practically infantilizing the victim’s concerns and trying to make them think that their worries are just flights of fancy. Please, please keep this in mind any time you want to accuse a character of gaslighting in the future; not all psychological abuse is a form of gaslighting. Sometimes it’s just... abuse. It’s not any more or less worse than gaslighting, it’s just different.

Anyway, about the “path” that the Inbetween is so obsessed with. No idea what the fuck that’s talking about.

In Kingdom Hearts, the only paths that are really of import are is a specific character’s “road to dawn” (redemption without fully yielding his edginess, essentially) or the “paths” that characters take to traverse between different worlds. I really don’t think the Inbetween has anything to do with either of them, but I’ll leave the options there if you want to peruse the possibilities.

What’s more likely, I think, is that this is a vaguely more subtle version of control/possession. The “path” is just “whatever the Inbetween wants you to do”.

Our next book is from the other side, and is plastered nonchalantly but boldly against the wall with no flower pot or anything.

Karl picks it up, puts it in his inventory (which probably indicates that he’s keeping this particular route close to his heart, rather than whatever the Inbetween is trying to make him do), and then the video stutters and he teleports back to the main entrance.

There’s a new book. It’s spooky as fuck, and hilariously hypocritical.

The tone shift is immediate, of course, aided by the abrupt change in background music since he got teleported back here. (I can’t quite nail it down; I assume it’s a slowed KH track like the others, but it doesn’t quite ring any bells for me.) The way the Inbetween speaks through these books has changed too, though; it addresses him by name without any attempt to cover up its intentions with flowery softness.

It does a cool fun thing where it says that it knows more than Karl, and knows what’s right, and then goes on to say that those visions shouldn’t dictate his opinion on the inbetween. (I’m keeping an eye on that lowercase, by the way. Not sure if it’s a typo or intentional, since it’s still one word, but.) As though he should trust the Inbetween’s opinions of itself rather than his own brain? A’ight. Sure, Jan.

Again it tries to tell him that it’s safe here. The lying is getting more transparent now.

He puts this book back, the previous book back, and runs after a double of himself until the shaders and music glitch again.

Fun thing about shaders is that they make dark areas... much, much darker. Especially since we saw that Karl’s got night vision (the effect, for cinematic purposes) on.

The music has a few notes that again sound as though they’re being played backwards.

The book on the tree in this courtyard does not come with its own little wither rose pot, and neither does it seem to come from the Inbetween, since it’s telling him some awful things about these other versions of himself.

It confirms a few things about the mystery other selves, namely that they’re definitely condemned to walk the castle forever, but it doesn’t really tell us why this happens or why the Inbetween (probably) wants this to happen. What’s the end goal?

We’re probably a bit early in the story to figure that out, but they’re questions worth keeping in mind as this storyline progresses.

Karl gets teleported back to the main lobby, which looks very dark and spooky, though in the transition we do see a glimpse of that portal. There are torches around the wither pot book pedestal, and the audio really kicks into high gear with the creepy notes and the visuals get stretched and glitch quite a bit as he opens the book.

Funnily enough, the audio kind of reminded me of some pokemon encounter music, but I think that’s just because I’ve got those notes wired into my brain from years of playing those games. Anyway! The book tells him this is not a warning, and that they’re gonna fucking come for him to make sure he sticks with their path.

“We”.

Who is “we”? Is the Inbetween a collective? Is the Inbetween just part of a different whole? Maybe it counts all the different Karls as a part of it.

Either way, it’s creepy and threatening. Karl starts running; the screen glitches and tells him to follow the torches, which at first I was kind of leery about trusting, but the next series of words helped clear up exactly what side those words are on.

Also, you’ll notice that some other text kinda skitters across the screen before the English, like it’s getting translated. I think it’s Galactic, which is something different from the thing that Ranboo uses for Ender? I think Ranboo uses the Alien language thing or something? I’m not 100% sure on that, feel free to correct me and I’ll fix this portion.

It certainly implies that the speaker isn’t communicating in the server equivalent of “common”, however. Not sure if they’re translating into English or if Karl inherently understands it and it’s translated into English for the audience’s convenience, but either way, the other speaker might be linked to something completely different.

Karl runs on with encouragement and creepy music until he finally arrives at the portal, which is not barred off like it was last time. Thanks, whoever’s responsible for that!

The music dies for this final book.

The Inbetween’s last-ditch attempt to make him stay. It calls him silly a couple of times, and smiles at the end with a :]

Problem is, we and Karl already know that staying with the Inbetween will keep him from his friends. And the voice tells him to leave for his friends.

Karl looks around at this place that calls itself his sanctuary, and makes his decision.

He arrives at The Other Side.

The music appears to be drawn from parts of either The Other Promise or Roxas’ Theme, both of which are heavily tied to the character known as Roxas. The version that Karl uses is slower and lower, the same as with the Dearly Beloved track he uses for his Inbetween segments.

Honestly, I’m not as certain on this as I could be, because I couldn’t find the exact variation on Youtube and there are parts that could just be Emotional rather than Roxas-related, I’m not sure. I’ll probably come back and fix this if it’s untrue.

EDIT: Yeah, uh, it’s Ven’s theme, not Roxas’, but the world itself is still heavily associated with Roxas in naming themes.

For now, I’m going off the assumption that the decision to make both the name and the theme of this world relevant to Roxas is purposeful, which means I’m... going to attempt to explain who Roxas is and what his story is.

Oh boy.

To grossly oversimplify the situation, Roxas is a “part” of Sora who develops his own sense of identity, is betrayed, gets coerced into murdering his best friend, gets kidnapped, gets memory wiped, and then—when he gets his memory back and realizes he super hates his captors—is convinced by those same captors to give up his existence because he “isn’t a real person” and if he lives then Sora will never wake up. So he “dies” and becomes a part of Sora again until later.

(Sora, by the way, is asleep due to the events in Castle Oblivion, which you might recognize as That Place I Keep Associating The Inbetween With.)

He’s also a fan favorite lmao. Take from that as you will, and, I don’t know, flip through his wiki page or something. Can’t guarantee it’s all understandable though.

My point to bringing Roxas up is that his arc... kind of parallels Karl’s. He did his job working for superiors he didn’t really understand in a white castle, with the higher-ups trying to control him, until he realized he was losing his friend/s to them. At that point, he defects. I think this is the point that Karl has reached, in his own storyline. He’s pulled away from the thing that’s made itself known to him, and now he’s wandering down something that hopefully isn’t as awful as the beast he’s just left behind.

Roxas also doesn’t get his happy ending for a long, long time.

Let’s hope Karl is different.

Off the top of my head, I can tell you that the mood this world creates is very reminiscent of some areas that the Kingdom Hearts games explore in 0.2 (yes, zero point two, that is the number of that game. This fucking series, man), specifically Castle Town, in which the player character has to smack a bunch of clock gears to make time go backwards in order to proceed, which is fun. But no exact inspirations come to mind the same way that Castle Oblivion did for the Inbetween.

Until we get a better look at the interiors, I’m going to gently claim that this build is more original and doesn’t take inspiration quite as directly from a Kingdom Hearts source, so there might not be an exact parallel. There isn’t a black castle in Kingdom Hearts that I can think of, honestly.

Also, I will say that I’m going to take this episode as confirmation that the wither roses are associated with the Inbetween and appear next to books that come from / are related to the Inbetween, especially since The Other Side associates itself with a completely different flower: the white tulip.

Anyway, The Other Side tells him he’s home, and that they’ll explore more soon.

This... eerily parallels the Inbetween, which told him that he’s safe, and has lots to explore.

I can’t say that I immediately trust The Other Side, but neither can I say that I inherently distrusted it the same way I did with the Inbetween. We’re going to have to wait and see how this place behaves in future episodes to get a good grasp of it. Who built these places? Are they alive, and writing the books, or is there a mastermind behind them? We still don’t have a lot of the answers, but that’s okay.

For now, I’m content to know that Karl is away from the more obvious perils of the Inbetween.

It could still be a trap, but for now, it’s a refuge.

#dream smp #tales from the smp #tftsmp #im exciteeddddd #general thoughts

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george5259999 · 3 years

Text

Week 9 - Prototyping

I was really keen to get into this week's content, as it felt as though the product was approaching its finished state. I had a pretty strong idea of the bottle concept I wanted to go with, so I used Rob's advice in the initial stages of the tutorial to make a template of the bottle on its top, front and side views (Image 1). I think that really paid its dividends as it allowed me to have a reference of the bottle's volume and size, but still allowed for a bit of creative freedom when creating the forms in Max.

After aligning my views and importing the reference images onto the planes of the box (Image 2), I started with the modelling of the front view. I found that working in one view at a time was the way to go, because it meant I didn't have to split my time between the three sides at once. I started with a plane and blocked out the outer edges of the form (Image 3), adding in the swift loops I learned from last week's tutorial, as well as the general navigation of the UI. I liked the amount of control I was starting to develop with 3ds Max, and I think that from last week, my skills have improved with more exposure to the program.

After the initial plane, I used the extrude tool to give it depth. When modelling, I decided to only focus on one half, and then mirror it over to the other side. I think its important to try and get concepts done as fast as possible, and I didn't want to overinvest on something that is meant to be experimental. I was having a lot of difficulty trying to connect the mirrored halves together into one solid mesh, so it took me a bit of time to find the answer on the Autodesk forums. I ended up finding a useful video on YouTube which instructed me to use the 'attach' tool when selecting both bodies to join them, and then bridging the edge loops together in the poly modelling tools. Although it was an arduous process, I think it was well worth the learning experience, and something which can be implemented into my workflow in the future to speed up my time modelling.

To create the taper on the side view, I used my discovery of the 'soft select' tool from last week to scale in the bottom section of the bottle (Image 4). I truly believe that the week 8 tutorial was pivotal in my understanding of the program, and it was really rewarding to use all of my experimentation practically. I then used the spline and lathe (Image 5 + 6) features to make the cap, tracing the reference image from the front view. I realised I forgot the bump at the top of the cap in the reference, so I added it into the lathe operation.

After the model was finished, I hid the reference layers (Image 7), and decided I wanted to work on rendering out my bottle design. I started by playing with the material editor in the Arnold rendering engine (Image 8). Before trying to play around with lighting and angles, I just wanted a base render of the bottle to see what the translucent material looked like. It was at this point that I ran into a sizeable issue. Using the MyAccess suite, 3ds Max was refusing to render anything out, and crashed multiple times before I gave up. Instead of trying to get the virtual machine to work, I switched to Blender on my PC. I was disappointed that I couldn't render anything through MyAccess, but I was comfortable with blender, and knew that I could make something which I was happy with.

I made a small pedestal out of a cube, and placed a bevel modifier in the exact same way I would in 3ds Max. Since I had made the jump to Blender, I decided that I wanted to add some branding decals to the surface of the bottle to make it look realistic. After, I UV unwrapped the model, and designed the branding in Photoshop Images 9 + 10).

I applied some textures and shaders to the bottle after preparing the decals and UV's. Browsing on Pinterest for inspiration, I found a frosted plastic which I really liked, so I modified the default Principled shader (Like Blinn or Lambert in Arnold) to pass light through; duplicating and scaling the bottle's body to create the moisturiser inside. I set up the three point lighting and camera angles for rendering in Cycles (Image 11 + 12).

Overall I was extremely happy with how these turned out, but at the same time I was disappointed that I wasn't able to improve my rendering skills with 3ds Max. Despite not using Arnold/Max as the renderer, I still learned a lot about product rendering and staging; as it is something I haven't had to do often. If I could redo these exercises, I would definitely get 3ds Max up and running on a stable platform so that I could render it out. I would also try a few more bottle concepts, and utilise the mirror feature more efficiently now that I know how to use it.

Pre-Class Activity: Andrew Simpson Cup Case Study

I found it extremely insightful when Andrew spoke about the continual and ongoing nature of designing prototypes. Digital and Physical model making both provide the opportunity for rapid iteration and 'tweaking' of ideas. What resonated with me most was when he discussed the importance of weight, and how the object "sits in your hand". Like his cup model, I believe that the physical foam model was influenced by how the form felt in my hand when carving it out of the block.

One stark comparison between Andrew's workflow and my own in this instance was the materiality of his concepts. Obviously, his concepts had a greater range of physical materials and product concepts, but I did my best to simulate that in 3ds max and Blender. Being in lockdown, it is quite difficult to source different tools and methods of production; so I think digital modelling really shines in this instance. Being able to try different materials, colours, finishes with the click of a button really works well with Andrew's mindset of low fidelity and rapid changes. In design, nothing is a static feature; everything plays a role in the perception of the final product.

Watching this video before working on my models was valuable, because it taught me that it was ok to deviate from the initial concept, and to go back and changes to try and enhance the product. It is a goal of mine to become more proficient and confident in every stage of design, and I found it really interesting to gain wisdom from someone who has been in the industry for a lot longer than I have.

#ides1262 2021 week 9

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leam1983 · 3 years

Text

On VR

Watching The Lawnmower Man and Virtuosity right before firing up Cyan's latest remake of Myst is, um... something.

Bret Leonard in the early 90s: "WHOA DUDES, VR'S TOTALLY GOING TO OPEN OUR CHAKRAS AND NADIS, WE'LL ASCEND AS A SOCIETY, IT'LL BE SO FUCKIN' RADICAL - AND WE'LL DESIGN METAVERSES THAT LOOK LIKE THOSE EIGHTIES' PAPER CUPS EVERYONE RIPPED THE RETRO DESIGN OFF OF!"

Hardware Enthusiasts Today: "Hi guys, it's me, your carbon copy of Linus Sebastian, and today, we'll be looking at Beige Wall Simulator 2021. Look at those shader passes; the realism and stringent adherence to photorealism is uncanny!

Oh, and uh, most interface elements have to be actual objects in the world, because we're still at the phase in VR's development where everything has to be skeumorphic in design. Pull-up menus? What's that, are you out of your fucking mind?! In this house, the Settings menu is behind a door which you have to physically open, so we can leverage the controller's gimmicky use of haptics! That SKU cost us twenty thousand grand a pop, Sharon; I'll make damn sure the players feel every penny!

Oh, um, sorry about that, heh - is the game fun? I really don't know - fun is such a nebulous concept anyway; I'm doing things I'd do without an HMD strapped on and there's a scant few non-skeumorphic elements present here and there - oh, and uh, Myst's Stoneship Island is now a fucking bitch to solve because you have to walk those tight fucking planks between the ship and the lighthouse without feeling like you're going to splash facefirst into those murky depths on either side!

Right, I almost forgot - and the compass rose puzzle that marks the Age's climax is unsolvable in the remake, because hit detection is irremediably fucked up with so many switches being pressed in so close to one another! We all know exactly which degree switch to press, we've solved the compass rose puzzle more times than we've had sex, but pointing at the right switch convinces the game you're actually looking to trigger the one switch that's four positions higher!

Y'wanna hear a gasser? The same fucking problem crops up with the Selenetic Age's pipe organ puzzle, because the haptics are so fucking sensitive you can't set the rocket ship's inner sliders to the right notes without jostling the previous sliders!"

And yes, I know how that sounds if you've never played Myst before - I absolutely sound like a lunatic. I'll still devoutly take this over Bungie going dur, moar jumping puzzles in a looter-shooter.

#lawnmower man #90s retro #shitty movies i can't help but love #jeff fahey was a snack #vr culture #brett leonard #techno-shamanism #cyberpunk af

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gaijinhunter · 5 years

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My quest to understand the Pokemon rage over "they lied"

With even more time put into looking into this, I am slightly surprised and slightly not surprised, to see many pointing at articles that translated an interview from Famitsu as the source of their anger and “they said they had to remake all the Pokemon models” and honestly it feels like a misinterpretation, although the Japanese was pretty vague to start with I will admit, but look at it in context:

From me:

Masuda: With the transition to the Nintendo Switch, we can show off Pokemon lively with better graphics than ever before. But on the flip side, it has taken a lot more development time than the past games. When it comes to the total number of Pokemon we have, if you include the new Pokemon and past Pokemon plus their form changes, we have over 1000 Pokemon. Not only is it incredibly difficult to bring them to quality that matches the hardware, but for battles it becomes really hard to balance the game so that Pokemon with new abilities can be utilized by players, and just overall balance between them is hard to achieve. So with that being considered, we decided that it would be too difficult to feature every Pokemon up to date in future games.

It was a tough and sad decision for me personally. Of course, if there was a way we could pull it off then we would make it so you can bring every Pokemon into the game, but but we knew this decision would come eventually. In the end we had to choose quality for the game (graphics of course, but battles and other parts of the game as well).

Masuda: It was a tough and sad decision for me personally. Of course, if there was a way we could pull it off then we would make it so you can bring every Pokemon into the game, but but we knew this decision would come eventually. In the end we had to choose quality for the game (graphics of course, but battles and other parts of the game as well).

Ohmori: Yeah, Masuda and I talked many times about this particular subject. Even during Pokemon Sun/Moon, it was pretty challenging for us to let every Pokemon be brought into the game. This time the game is on the Nintendo Switch, models we need to make from scratch, so we knew that we had to make a decision.

Masuda starts by going on about how they have over 1000 Pokemon if you include the new ones and the form changes of the past ones and that overall it’s be hard to maintain overall game quality and balance if a huge chunk of the dev time is being spent on the ability to bring over past Pokemon. He stated that they would need to do graphic work, but beyond visuals, the battle balance would be super hard to achieve and they would have a hard time trying to make sure that new Pokemon with new characteristics would be utilized by players.

Ohmori jumps in and add that they were already struggling with (assuringly resources/time) when they made it so you can bring over all past Pokemon in Sun/Moon so considering the is the switch and models would need to be created from scratch, they couldn’t run from the decision.

POINT: The vague and open-to-interpretation comes from Ohmori adding in the “models needing to be remade” as it could just refer to the fact that in general, this is a Pokemon game on a new hardware so where in Sun/Moon they could reutilize a ton of assets (outside even Pokemon), this time they couldn’t so they had a heavier work load from the very start. That is why they couldn’t run from this decision, on top of all the really important points that Masuda just made.

Keep in mind here that Masuda didn’t make this decision specific to a resource challenge for just this game, he said this is for games going forward that they will no longer have the franchise mindset to bring every single Pokemon into each new game. That tells you right there this is not a specific issue for Sword and Shield, but a larger one where they really do care about new Pokemon being used and to devote resources not to legacy, but new stuff.

I agree his wording was not very clear, yet western media jumped on the final point that Ohmori added and largely ignore the major points laid out before he added it in there, and made is seem that “there was a clear reason they cant bring them over and its because they had to remake Pokemon models” which is wrong IMO.

Heck on their official website right now they have an interview with the technical artist working on the game and he states that they are using existing models:

“I am a technical artist and I am primarily in charge of model expression for the game series “Pokemon”. Specifically, I work on the development of the shaders for the Nintendo Switch, deciding model specifications, and methods for efficiently refining previously-made models.”

So yeah, maybe all this fuss is due to yet another linguistic difference, and Game Freak hasn’t done anything to address the outrage, maybe because they were taught that attempting to address it would make it worse, who knows.

Anyway, wanted to share this perspective since I often comment on “lost in translation” stuff.

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lordshaxxion · 5 years

Note

AAALL for Cidrex because he is my favorite boy

alright u asked for it >:U all of this fuckery will be under a cut

Where were you rezzed?

“In a forest somewhere in the EDZ, I think. I don’t really remember much of it, I was pretty much immediately attacked by Fallen, so there was a lot of running for my life.”

How long ago was it?

“During the Dark Ages, so a reaaaally long time ago. Like, during the prime of the Iron Lords.”

Did you have anything in your pockets?

“Just a lump of crystal quartz, but it was rose-coloured and I guess that’s where my obsession with shiny things and collecting crystals from? Oh, I also had some old currency from the Golden Age. No idea what kinda currency, but I cleaned them up and they’re super shiny and really cool.”

What was your first week alive like?

“Stressful. It was a lot of learning how to survive and trusting my Ghost to heal any injuries and bring me back if I died. That was a shock in itself though, when I died for the first time.”

How did you react to your new role as a Guardian?

“Well I became an Iron Lord before I became a Guardian, and that was pretty alright until SIVA happened. After that, being a Guardian and being an Iron Lord became the same thing - just doing the right thing because no one else will, or can.”

Do you have any regrets?

“I couldn’t save my brothers and sisters of Iron from SIVA. Saladin has always told me that I couldn’t have saved them by myself, but I still regret not doing more to at least try.”

Does your ghost have a name?

“He’s called Socks-”

“IT’S SOX!”

“-because he used to hide in my sock drawer at the Iron Temple.”

What is your ghost like?

“He calls himself Sox because he wants to look cool, and I think he cares too much about how he looks from the perspective of other Ghosts. I dunno if Ghosts are judgy to one another, but what I do know is that Sox used to hang around a not-so-great group of them. He’s small for a Ghost and I think this group sorta... took the piss. He tries to act tough a lot, but I know that deep down he cares a lot and he does like his actual name.”

How do you feel about the last city and the vanguard?

“I was sent to the Last City by Saladin to act as a so-called ambassador between the City and the Temple, so it’s like a second home to me now. I know all the streets like the back of my hand, even the sectors I’m not really meant to venture into. The Vanguard are alright, they have their hiccups but I know they mean well and try their best. Well, the did until Cayde... yeah.”

What’s your favourite place to go?

“Cayde used to describe it as wanderlust, but I like wandering all over the Earth and seeing all the ruins and wilds there are. Though my favourite place out of all is the Lost Sector in Winding Cove. It’s so beautiful there with the glow-worms in the dark and the reflection of them in the water. Nice and quiet too, when it’s cleared out every other day.”

Do you participate in strikes or the crucible?

“Strikes. I leave the Crucible to my brother, Othion.”

How do you celebrate the holidays?

“I used to celebrate in getting blackout drunk with Cayde and the rest of the Vanguard, we even used to persuade Shaxx and Othion to join us sometimes. Now though I spend them by myself just tinkering with the stuff I’ve collected over the years.”

Who is your favourite NPC and who is your least favourite?

“It was and will always be Cayde. I can’t get along with Ada-1, though. She unnerves me and acts rather stuck-up despite allowing Guardians into the Black Armory now.”

Where do you sleep/call home?

“I have my own apartment in the Tower, of course, and unlike most Hunters that’s where I call home. It gets me weird looks though, I know a lot of Hunters prefer sleeping under the open stars and it gets Sox to tease me and call me ‘a domesticated hunter’.”

Do you have any pets or companions?

“I wanted to get a cat when Cayde was still around, but we never got round to doing it. Though I kinda have magpies that come to stay when I’m at home. I put feed out on the window sill for them and sometimes they come back with shiny trinkets for me. Oh, and I look after Colonel too, but I’m not allowed to keep Colonel in my apartment because other Hunters would throw a fit.”

Does anyone live with you?

“Cayde and I talked about it, about him moving in with me or something. Again, we never got round to it.”

How do you unwind or comfort yourself?

“It’s embarrassing to admit, but when me and Sox went exploring a while back we found a stash of what used to be called ‘stim toys’. Lots of pots of squishy clay-like dough. Sometimes if I’m overwhelmed I just dig out one of the pots and just sit there squishing it for an hour or so. In terms of general relaxation, if I have the attention span I’ll read or if I don’t then I’ll watch some movies. I got a good collection of Golden Age and pre-Golden Age movies now.”

What would truly break you?

“Losing someone close to me again. I lost Cayde and I wasn’t myself for a long time. If I were to go through that again, I really don’t think I’d recover at all.”

Most embarrassing moment?

“When Sox resurrected me for the first time after dying and I sat there crying and threw up for two hours. It wasn’t... my greatest moment.”

Any cherished memories?

“All of my time with Cayde, to be honest with you. Even when we argued, I cherish those memories greatly. Also the first time I discovered a rare crystal, that was a pretty good moment too.”

What was your highest and/or lowest point?

“Like I said, losing Cayde devastated me almost to a point of no return. Highest point? First Crimson Days with Cayde, we wrecked shop in the Crucible together and got banned in the same day! The look on Izel’s face was glorious.”

Views on the enemy races?

“I don’t like the Taken or Scorn, those are practically a given. Vex are annoying and freak me out a little. Cabal I loathe for what they did to the City, though that’s predominantly the Red Legion but whatever. Hive also freak me out now I think about it, though the worms they drop are kinda cute. Fallen? I just feel pity for them. They lost everything in their own version of the Collapse and are just trying to get by, and yet we keep attacking them.”

Which enemy race is your most/least favourite?

“I hate the Scorn for what they did. On the flip side of that, I rather like the Fallen. I got a chance to get to know a few, like Mithrax, and they’re honestly not that bad when you do get to know them.”

What’s your role in a fireteam? (Tank, support, buff/healer, comic relief? Or are you the dead weight?)

“Dead weight.”

“No you aren’t, Cidrex, you’re a sniper.”

Do you have any mentors/mentees?

“Saladin and many of the original Iron Lords were my mentors, but I don’t have any mentees. Hunters ask me for advice every so often, but I don’t give it. I don’t want to be in that position, I’m not a good teacher.”

What is your favourite weapon type/favourite weapon?

“Give me my DARCI and I’m good to go. I like auto rifles a lot though, despite me using snipers a lot I’m not that great up close so it’s easier for me to just kinda spray and pray without the instability of SMGs.”

Do you play Gambit?

“Sometimes. It can get really stressful trying to deal with invaders that use utter bastard weapons.”

How do you feel about the Drifter?

“I don’t know. Everything about his operations just tell me that I can’t trust him at all, but then I got to know him better and I just feel... kinda sad?”

If you could be any class/subclass (not just your own), what would you be and why?

“Striker Titan, cuz it looks like fun and a great stress and tension relief. Though, I’d like to be able to use Gunslinger properly, I’ve never been able to use it all that well even when Cayde tried to teach me. I’d just like to do it, for him.”

What are your thoughts on the Nine?

“Fuckin’ weird. I don’t trust them at all, especially not after I saw the Emissary for the first time. Though Xur’s pretty cool.”

Any secret crushes or relationships we need to know about?

“Well.... there is this one guy. Hunter, but he’s built like a Titan. Got no social skills and the emotional range of a teaspoon, but he’s charming in his own way regardless.”

“It’s Ataric.”

“SOX!” @crazy-bone-lady

Does your Ghost approve, or haven’t you told them?

“Sox is a piece of shit that tries to out my crush at every given moment. Luckily, he’s a tiny piece of shit so I can just hold him in my hands and he can’t do anything.”

You’re about to go off-planet on assignment, and will only be able to eat protein rations and food gel for a month. What’s your last meal?

“I don’t really have a preferred meal or anything, so I’d just get take-out somewhere in the City. I know a couple really good joints.”

If you could take over any NPC’s job, who would it be and why?

“Cayde’s job as Hunter Vanguard. I know every Hunter has just about run for the hills, and will always do so when they hear the words ‘Vanguard Dare’, but I’d be happy to take up the position. I’ve already taken up his cloak, might as well take the job that came with it right?”

What is the most beautiful sight you’ve seen?

“When Sox and I were exploring an Io cave system, we fell through into a massive chamber filled with crystals. The light from where we’d fallen through shone on the crystals in such a way it created an utterly breathtaking spectrum of colour. We took so many photos of that moment, it was just so amazing to see all these crystalline spires lit up and practically glowing.”

“What about that sunrise in the EDZ?”

“Oh yeah, this one was pretty good.”

Do you have a favourite colour?

“Not particularly, though green’s pretty good since I dyed my hair with it.”

Show us your favourite outfit!

“Top picture, switch the pants for the Lucky Pants and you’re sorted. Bottom picture, I miss my BrayTech hood. It was super cosy, and paired nicely with the Taimat(?) chestpiece.”

What’s your favourite shader?

“New Monarchy Diamonds and Metro Shift.”

If you could make a wish to an Ahamkara for anything - no strings attached - what would you wish for?

“To save all those I failed to save. The Iron Lords, Cayde. All of them.”

#long post #destiny #destiny 2 #lord cidrex #guardian asks #this is all under a GIANT cut #thanks jules #crazy-bone-lady

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gataela · 5 years

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Progress Update - 4/1/19 - 79.2% Complete

Completed:

Final Overworld Maps - 14.2% in progress; 71.7% complete

Worked on adding new music

Worked on updating the UI

Worked on updating and adding new animations

Worked on updating older maps

Worked on a new website

Optimized the new shaders

Added Battle Screen Transitions

Revealed more new characters

Added a file version number to save files

Added location popup information to some maps

Added shadows to Wynoa houses in the overworld

Add a dev mode that will identify objects which will cause the player to be stuck into on map load/spawn (i.e. this shouldn’t happen anymore)

Changed the run button to be a toggle between running/walking for hand comfort

Changed Pharyon and Klatchez town layouts completely

Modified some of the opening sequence changes back to the original

Set the max number of file saves for the game to 10

Worked on updating more dialogue for older cutscenes

Fixed a bug where the new opening cutscene would lag on computers with 8GB of RAM or less

Fixed a bug where loaded skills would be drawn off screen except in certain situations where they were on screen

Fixed a bug where switching between the main menu and the overworld would have roofs, water, grass effects, house shading and other effects disappear

Fixed a problem where some cutscenes would freeze

Fixed a shader issue which caused more complicated screen transitions to draw incorrectly

Coming up next:

Bug fixes

Graphical Update

This past month focused on optimization, bug fixes, updating older maps, new music, new art, and some much needed polish.

Also this update is unfortunately very late due to a lack of internet.

2018 in Review

Now that we’re firmly in 2019 land, I wanted to talk a bit about 2018 and how much we actually got done!

I know for a lot of people who have been following the development for a long time that it doesn’t feel like much has happened the last couple of years. As you may or may not be aware, due to family situations I had to stop all work in 2017 shortly after the Steam greenlight.

When I started up work again in 2018, I spent a lot of time thinking about the feedback from everyone from the demo, how to make the game better, and how to finish it faster. Most of this year was putting everyone’s feedback into the game.

So 2018 was a really big transitional period. I’ve been working a full-time job since that time in 2017, so all my work on Gataela has been part-time since then, not to mention most of the Gataela team work part-time to begin with.

And with all that going on, here’s how 2018 went for the game:

468 commits; 284,735 additions; 260,291 deletions; 1 programmer

328 programming JIRAs completed

Finished all of the skit/debate images, including updating older ones

Changed all of the animations to be 8-frame+ instead of 4-frame

Changed the turn-based battles to be from the side view instead of top-down

New pixel art style for the characters!

Added new character battle animations

Re-did over half of the battle skill animations, and all of the character battle animations

Re-did all of the overworld sprites

Re-did all of the UI (25+ screens)

Added a new screen for summarizing known debate facts

Went to two conventions (Anime North, Otakuthon) and showed off a sneak preview of the new demo

Added run animations + the highly requested run button

Doubled Gataela’s soundtrack (~70 minutes long now)

Added a screenshot function to the game

Added a unit test framework (i.e. more future stability)

Added more polish to debate battles: a countdown sfx, debate images with more expressions, the character profiles will animate more based on what was said

Updated Vuni’s layout to make it easier to get around

Redid Pharyon and Klatchez, and other in between maps

Created a new opening sequence, with new animations and music

Moved beta testing to Steam

Optimized the heck out of the game, including reducing textures, switching to using shaders, optimizing shaders, etc.

Saving is now instant (1 second or less)

Map transitions for larger scenes are now almost instant 1-3 seconds

Converted older methods of map making to shaders, added new cool shader effects such as walking through grass, time of day, etc.

Download size for the game is stable around 250-300MB. (Final game size was originally estimated to be 2GB)

RAM usage down, i.e. lower end devices can now run chrome, OBS and Gataela at the same time.

Reworked a lot of dialogue and debates, removing a lot of it, adding new scenes

Debate system was upgraded from strictly being talk-to-npc based to include facts, testimonies and evidence gathering (i.e. a little bit more detective-like)

Revealed new characters!

New logo

Fancy battle screen transitions

New Quest pop-up and Location pop-up was added to the overworld

So TL;DR a super busy year.

2019?

So what’s up for 2019? I’m not going to promise anything in particular, but there’s a few high-level goals which I will touch on below:

New Website: We’ve been working on a new website for a little while that will give us more support for writing longer-form posts, and act more of a hub of information for the game which will be easier to search through. We really want to post more technical posts, like the shader work, how we approach the level design or some of the changes we’ve made and why, etc. Tumblr is a site focused more on micro-blogging, which makes posts, particularly with code, difficult to organize nicely.

80% Hump: We’ve been at 79% completion for a long time. Let’s get past that.

New Demo: There will be a new demo published this year showing off all of the above work. It will be the same length as the older one, but with all of the improvements, and obviously the new dialogue/story segment.

Beta-Testing Schedule: This year I would like to get to a point where every quarter (after the demo comes out) there is at least one new beta release to the beta testers.

Other than that, we’ll see!

Happy New Year everyone!

#indie dev #game dev #game development #gaming #jrpg #progress

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rje · 6 years

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Hello (Procedural) World! - UE4 Voxel Project Devblog 1

tl;dr version: I’ve always wanted to play with 3d procedural spaces, and I’ve always wanted to learn UE4. So I’m doing both by making a voxel project in UE4!

For years now I’ve wanted a good excuse to dive into two different things: a deep dive into building things in UE4, and generating 3d procedural worlds from scratch. Recently some time opened up in my schedule to work on some new things so I decided to combine those desires and make a small voxel world game in UE4.

As of right now this is not a full game project, simply a technology testbed where I can learn more about working with UE4 and more about working with voxel data and procedural 3d spaces. That said I’ll be implementing various game’ish systems over time since that goes hand in hand with learning the engine.

So, after the first bit of work what does this all look like in action? Take a look!

youtube

Here’s a list of the bits I’ve implemented so far that make that video possible:

Using noise to generate a seamless/infinite world (including simple caves) and generating meshes

Multithreaded loading chunks of the world on demand

Basic player interaction to create/destroy voxels

A shader that textures voxels based on their material type

Also for fun I took the voxel generation and embedded it in an augmented reality application so I can build voxel objects in the real world. :)

UE4 Stuff I’ve Learned So Far

ProceduralMeshComponent

The ProceduralMeshComponent is doing the heavy lifting for all of my mesh rendering and world physics state, and it couldn’t be easier to use. It has a function called CreateMeshSection that you pass vertices, triangle indexes, normals, uv’s, etc to and it creates the mesh and collider for you.

One thing I found while I was testing is that a single ProceduralMeshComponent allows for multiple meshes - each CreateMeshSection call takes a “section index” and if you specify a new index it will add another submesh to the component and you can give it a separate material. However there seems to be an increased processing cost each time you add a submesh that I need to investigate. The processing was sufficiently large with the number of chunks I’m making (~512 chunks) that I ended up switching to an array of ProceduralMeshComponents and each one only has to handle a single chunk.

Long term I think this will be a better route anyways, since then I can use section indexes to handle materials that need different rendering options (e.g. water or stuff with animated tiles).

FNonAbandonableTask

As I started generating caves I hit stutters again since generating 3d noise is computationally expensive. What I wanted ideally was for chunk generation to be kicked over to another thread, and then update meshes on the main thread when the generation is finished. FNonAbandonableTask has been perfect for this so far - for each chunk I create a struct to hold all of the generation results and pass it to a new GenerateChunk task, which then does the work, fills out the struct, and marks it as complete. I was really happy with how easy this was to get going, between reading up on it and implementing it I think I probably only spent 2 hours? Works great. Worth noting that these are *not* immediately killed when a game stops, so if they rely on a memory/reference that gets destroyed on game stop it can bring down your editor. The joys of threaded programming. :)

FCriticalSection

One issue that I ran into with the threading experiment was that my sparse voxel volume data structure wasn’t threadsafe, so when I kicked chunk generation into the task graph all the different threads started stomping all over each other. Not good! I reworked the tasks to use a FCriticalSection to lock access to the volume for writes. The expensive part of the computation (noise generation) can still happen freely since each voxel is computed independently. So a single tasks generates all of the data for a chunk, grabs the lock, updates the volume, and then releases the lock. I was worried about how a locking data structure would work with the task system but so far it’s been smooth sailing.

Misc Stuff

Lots of little things about creating materials for the voxels, e.g. using world space + the block material to calculate UV’s for the block faces

Putting input handling into the player controller instead of the pawn - being able to swap in a new pawn type is handy!

Using SCOPE_CYCLE_COUNTER to track performance of various code blocks is super handy for tracking down what’s causing stutters in your code

Along those same lines: the profiler in the session frontend is great for digging into why you had a spike

UGameplayStatics has a ton of useful functions

Misc Augmented Reality/Mobile Stuff

If you’re on android, don’t enable Vulkan - it hard crashes on launch as of UE4.19

Ambient occlusion doesn’t work on mobile!

I still haven’t figured out how to get a directional light to cast shadows for my voxels

Getting close to the surface where you’re editing blocks causes the AR system to lose tracking -- not enough feature points?

Use the “launch” feature for testing, packaging/deployment is pretty slow otherwise

Voxel Stuff I’ve Learned

Generation

There is no magic single noise formula to get interesting results, use different noise functions for different aspects and combine them all for the result you want. Right now I’m using 3 sets of noise and will probably need a lot more before I’m done

3d noise is expensive. If there’s something you can do with 2d noise instead for a similar result, do it

Perturbed cellular noise is great for all sorts of stuff

Simplex noise is pretty boring to look at but great as modifier/argument to more noise stuff

Caves are really hard to do well when you’re generating each voxel independently

You can lose an entire night’s worth of work time just tweaking your noise parameters and testing the result

Always have an easy way to see the seed of your current world so you can repro bugs as you find them

Always showing player coordinates in dev mode is a really handy tool so you know how to get back to an area that had a bug

Rendering

Turn off all the static lighting stuff, you can’t use it anyways

For cubes, ambient occlusion adds a nice effect at the seams. But don’t overdo it otherwise it looks like your world is being taken over by black mold :(

Using world space coords to generate uvs for blocks is great - just make sure to inset everything slightly so you don’t bleed into neighboring tiles in your tile atlas

When you create/destroy a block on the edge of a chunk make sure you tell the neighboring chunks to update as well, otherwise you can end up with discontinuous areas

What’s Next?

Now that the basics are working I’m still deciding what I want to do next. On the UE4/gameplay side I’m thinking I might have block destruction spawn materials that players can pick up and use to build new structures. It’d be a good lead-in to eventually adding something like a crafting system.

For the generator, I’d really like to figure out a better way to assign material types to voxels (and add new material types for increased diversity). Also I’m not happy with the generated caves at all right now, in particular with how they present themselves on the surface.

On the voxel side of things I’m tempted to give up on the minecraft/blocky look entirely and try to move to a smooth world mesh like you see in Astroneer and No Man’s Sky. I need to read up more on how those systems work before I dive into it though.

Other things would be reading up on UE4′s static instance mesh system to start adding foliage, changing chunk generation to be based on player line of sight instead of a naive ‘load all chunks in radius x around player’. Also starting to think about how to handle chunks that need multiple material types (e.g. animated lava/water)

Well, that’s all for now I think, hopefully the next dev blog will be shorter! This one was a bit of a brain dump since I waited so long to write it. As always if you have questions or something in particular you want to know about - feel free to hit me up on twitter. Thanks for reading!

#ue4 #voxel #devblog #gamedev

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sheepiling · 6 years

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I DOWNLOADED MY FIRST MOD AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

So, I was getting really tired of how un-vibrant Sims 4 is. I didn’t really notice it/care at first, but once Sage was born I found myself constantly fighting the lighting in the game and setting up temporary lamps everywhere when I took screenshots just because of how un-flattering the Sims 4 lighting is for sims of color. (I mean I’ve had mixed race couples since gen 1 but the focus was always on the founder/heir so if their partner wasn’t as well lit up as they were I didn’t pay much attention to it, but Sage is the first heir to actually have darker skin genetics passed down to him ‘cuz apparently in sims world recessive and dominant genetic traits are reversed... or at least in this family they are rip)

But anyways, I don’t want to spend time editing my screenshots so I just got a lighting mod for the game. OwO;;

I just want to make a post now and tag it with wcif because I really don’t download much and if I ever do get cc in addition to this I’ll just post and wcif tag that too so anyone that’s curious can easily see what I’ve got quickly~

I also want to add that I’m going to go very in-depth about the installing process because I am not tech-savvy at all and it took me a whole evening to figure all of this out, so if anyone else is in the same boat as me I hope this helps! XD

Also before I start explaining things I just want to add that before you start changing things, ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR GAME!! Make a copy of The Sims 4 folder that’s in your documents, AND the one that’s in your Origin Games folder that’s on your C drive (or wherever you installed Sims 4).

First I downloaded NoBlu and NoGlo

The links to the page their downloads are located along with information from the creator are right there in that title~

Those two mods work together, so I suggest getting them both! The NoBlu removes the blue tint that shows up at night time and indoors too I think, and if I understand things correctly the NoGlo removes that blue tint from your sims themselves so they don’t look blue-ish in contrast to the rest of the world that’s now been stripped of that blue tint.

Like, the point of the blue tint that’s in the game is to make it so you can see things better in the dark, but from what I can tell it also makes day time seem darker too at certain times of the day. So getting rid of this will make night time darker if no lights are around, but I think it makes day time brighter and the lights at night time is brighter too and your sims just react more naturally to lighting~

When downloading NoBlu, just pick one of those three files that are there. I picked NoBluLightingReplacement.package

For NoGlo, there’s two files there, and I downloaded both of them. They’re the NoGloRemover and the EyeSpecularRemover

NoGlo and EyeSpecularRemover are applied to each sim in cas just like cc, so I’m not sure if I’ll bother using them. But I haven’t had this NoBlu lighting mod for very long so if I end up noticing my sims glowing in the dark with a blueish light then I’ll probably bother to put that on everyone. Maybe.

These two mods are really easy to download! It’s just like downloading CC, just get the file and put it in Documents -> Electronic Arts -> The Sims 4 -> Mods

Then I got ReShade

This mod took me quite a while to figure out... (I’m just sort of challenged when it comes to things like this which is why I don’t use much mods/cc in the first place) 😓

So this is a program that you can install into a lot of different games, it’s not made just for sims 4, but it works really well on sims 4! The website to download this is https://reshade.me/

Additionally, THIS VIDEO is the most helpful tutorial for installing it that I could find (imo). I also want to add to always read the README text files that come with mods when you download them... I’m sure you probably already do that but I’m an impatient derp that couldn’t figure out some things until I read the readme... >.>;;

Also, I had an issue when installing ReShade, and I’m just gonna explain everything I went through in case anyone else is having a hard time too, ‘cuz it took me quite a while to find the info. I needed. I also want to add that I use windows 8.1 (unfortunately that’s the only operating system that’s compatible with my laptop, so no windows 10 or 7 for me, I already tried, rip) so the issue I had could of been caused by 8.1′s wonkyness. But I don’t know for sure.

After it asked me if I want to download a collection of standard effects, and I clicked yes, it said it failed. The program was properly installed into Sims 4, but I had no effects or textures (which is the whole point of getting this...)

But! This can be fixed by downloading the effects manually and putting them into your bin folder yourself. THIS FORUM on ReShade’s website has this answer and a link to the download for the effects and textures. The very first answer under the OP’s question is the one with the download~ I’m very thankful to that helpful person. Also, I’m just linking the forum instead of the responder’s link itself b/c once you click on their link it downloads the file. It’s not a link to a file share or anything, it’s just the direct download. The ReShade website probably has these up for download on their website somewhere too... But I’m trash at navigating websites that I’m not used to so I have no idea where... But I would assume it’s there somewhere...

After you have that file, slap it into your sims 4′s bin folder (tutorial I linked before shows where that is). Now, this alone is not all that you need to do. Now that it’s in the file, you need to go into the game and open the ReShade interface. Then you go over to settings and you need to copy paste the path for the program to find the effects and textures. There’s two separate boxes, one for effects and one for textures.

To do this, go into the shaders folder that’s in your reshade shaders’ folder in your sims 4′s bin folder. Then in the bar at the top of your file’s window that shows all the files you’ve gone into, click on it and copy it. Then tab back to your sims 4 game and paste that info into ReShade’s effects box. Then go into your textures file and do the same things for the textures box in ReShade.

When you paste them into the ReShade interface they should look something like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\reshade-shaders\Shaders

C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4\Game\Bin\reshade-shaders\Textures

Of course, if you didn’t install this on your C drive it might be a bit different, but you need to find that from wherever you installed Sims 4.

Once you’ve done all that the issue should be fixed and it’ll now load up all 60 effects and textures that you’ve downloaded every time you start up Sims 4 or tab back into your game after alt tabbing out!!!!! .................

So, hooray for it working properly now, BUT GOODNESS DOES THIS ANNOY ME. So like. If you’re going to download a preset from someone else (youtube tutorial I linked already shows how to do that) then I suggest keeping all the files you’ve downloaded. Especially if you’re switching between multiple presets for different occasions. There’s lots of ReShade presets all over tumblr, btw. So have fun looking them up if that’s what you want to do!

But I’m not doing that. I don’t need all of this. It’s giving me a lag for no reason. SO I DELETED A WHOLE BUNCH OF EFFECTS ‘CUZ FUQ THIS LOADING TIME.

Be careful not to delete anything important, though. In the shaders folder is the only folder I deleted anything inside of. Anything that was installed in the reshade-shaders folder I left alone. But inside the shaders or textures folder that’s inside of that reshade-shaders folder should be fine to delete things. BUT DON’T DELETE FILES THAT IT NEEDS TO RUN~

Anything that is a .fhx file you need to keep. Anything that is a .fx file is simply the effect itself and is safe to delete. I didn’t delete anything in my textures folder because when I downloaded the whole thing from the forum the textures folder didn’t have much in it. This might be different if you were able to install correctly in the first place.

Anyways! The files I ended up keeping were all the .fhx files and the following effects: Colorfulness.fx, Vibrance.fx, and DPX.fx

Colorfulness and Vibrance increase the saturation and vibrancy of your game and DPX is one that overall birghtens everything (I think). There’s lots of other effects that do the same things as these but those three are my favorites. Well, I don’t use DPX, it makes it a bit too bright for my eyes, but I decided to keep that one because whenever I’m able to get Seasons, if rainy/snowy days make the game seem way too dark I might want to enable DPX just for those days.

But for normal sunny days, just checking Colorfulness and Vibrance is enough for me~ I didn’t even mess with the sliders on how much you want it to effect the game because I don’t want to deal with those kind of advanced settings. I just pushed the check mark box on those two and done!

Now that I only have 3 effects and then the few textures that I never use but aren’t hurting anything by being there, it doesn’t even have a loading time to get ReShade to run properly when starting up my Sims 4 or tabbing back into it. ReShade is just ready to go right away!

So if you’re wanting to brighten up your game, but have a slower computer and most lighting mods and/or ReShade being the way it normally is lags your game too much, you could consider doing what I did! :D

Also, with ReShade, you need to change the way you take screenshots now. Doing it with the C button just takes a picture of your naked game, not the ReShade effects.

So, ReShade’s default hotkey for taking screenshots is Prt Scrn, so you can use that button now or you can change which button you want to take screenshots in the settings tab of ReShade’s interface. But the point is just pushing C doesn’t capture the ReShade effects so you’ll need a different button!

Also! In ReShade’s settings tab, you need to change the screenshot format if you want to upload your ReShade screenies to tumblr! Its default is set to Bitmap, which tumblr doesn’t support, so change it so it saves as a PNG file instead!!!

You can also change the path for where it’s going to drop your screenshots off at. The default is set to Sims 4′s bin folder, so if you want it to drop off screenshots in a different folder that’s dedicated to just screenshots and doesn’t have your game’s other important things in it, you’ll need to change the path for that (it’s the same as when you changed the path for it to find the effects and textures, just copy paste where you want it to go).

Keep in mind that if you move the folder you told ReShade to dump its screenshots at then you’ll need to update the path in ReShade’s interface or it won’t be able to find the folder and you won’t get your screenies~

So yea! That’s all the info. I have!! I hope this helps someone that wants to use ReShade but has been confused about it like I was!! 😂

Also sorry if my explaining things is long and confusing. This is just how thoughts flow in my brain so.. um... yea. >.>;

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withlovecesca · 6 years

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“Even the simplest tools can empower people to do great things…”

That’s exactly how I feel about makeup tools. The biggest mistake you can make when starting out in makeup is to splurge on expensive products without having the right tools to apply them properly. I always say that even the cheapest of makeup can look amazing with just the right brush or sponge. (However, if the product is a complete dud, no brush in the world can save it. LOL) I understand though that makeup brushes and tools can be completely overwhelming with the large variety in the market. Here I have a simplified guide on how to start your own makeup brush set that would fit your own makeup style. I share with you the brushes you’d need, the purpose and my favorites. You don’t have to go out and buy the exact same brush as I mentioned, but at least get something similar that fits the purpose. Are you a Minimalist, an Enthusiast or an Extra? Read more to find out..

WARNING: It’s gonna be a long one, so grab a snack…

NOTE: These sets are meant to compliment my “Must Have Tools” guide. If you haven’t read that yet, I highly suggest checking that out and then coming back to things to really have an overview of how your tools and your brushes can work together. In that post I recommended getting a makeup sponge which is why I no longer mentioned it in this one. The idea is to have all of those tools and build your brushes from there.

THE MINIMALIST – Just like the name suggests, this is for every makeup lover who wants to keep it simple, quick and minimal. However, with this set you can make a complete makeup look if you just know how to use them. Another key thing in making this set work for a complete beat face is to spot clean your brush in between shades/products to avoid making your makeup look muddy. Here’s how to use each brush

1. Multi-Purpose Face Brush | 13rave from 13rushes PURPOSE: Foundation, Powder, Bronzer, Contour and any other Cream/Powder products for the face

Let me discuss this brush in particular. This has changed my minimalist makeup game so much! It’s absolutely incredible. The idea is to get yourself an angled buffer brush but the reason why I love this one in particular so much is because it’s such an amazing quality brush. The angle isn’t sharp and there’s a bit of a curve at the end so it fits your cheekbones perfectly as well as the other crevices of your face. You don’t have to get this specific brush but if I were to recommend one, this is definitely the top on my list. An alternative would be any angled buffer brush. So many brands have their own kind. Just find one that fits your budget and works for you

2. Concealer Buffer Brush | Zoeva Concealer BufferZoeva Concealer Buffer PURPOSE: Under eye concealing, spot concealing, detail brush and a small buffer brush.

3. Small Blush Brush | 13rushes Classic Blush Brush PURPOSE: Blush & Highlight

This brush in particular I suggest would be a small brush and a bit tapered at the tip just so that you can use it to highlight the high points of your face but still be able to blend out your blush.

4. Tapered Fluffy Blending Brush | 13rushes Fluffy Blender PURPOSE: Transition shade, crease shade and over all eye blender

This brush in particular has to be fluffy yet tapered, meaning there is a little point at the end. That will allow you to blend if needed but also be precise for the crease shades.

5. Shader Brush | Zoeva Luxe Smokey Shader PURPOSE: All over eye shader and detail brush

6. Smudge Brush | Zoeva Smudger BrushZoeva Smudger Brush PURPOSE: Under eye smudge brush or tight lining.

THE ENTHUSIAST – I personally don’t like to mix brushes. I have a specific brush for a specific task. If you’ve become like me, no longer a minimalist, and you don’t want to have to spot clean your brush every time you have to switch products/shades then welcome to the enthusiast club! You still have the minimalist essence in you but you’d like to venture out into more tools and looks. You’re ready for more and these are the brushes you’ll be needing to ADD to your Minimalist Set…

(Note: I said adding, let’s just say you came from a minimalist wanting to upgrade to an enthusiast so here you go)

1. Duo Fiber Small Stipple Brush |ELF Small Stipple Brush PURPOSE: Cream or liquid blending brush

I personally love to blend out my cream contour with this brush. It leaves it looking airbrushed and natural I love it.

2. Large Fluffy Powder Brush | ELF Complexion Brush PURPOSE: Over-all setting brush or Bronzer Brush

This brush is my ride of die bronzer brush. This is one of the first OG brushes I had when I started makeup and it’s still my absolute favorite!

3. Contour Brush | Morphe E41 Round Deluxe Powder PURPOSE: Powder Contouring

When starting out with contouring using powders, I always suggest a small round powder brush. It’s the easiest contour brush to start with to avoid looking like you have harsh lines drawn on your face. The small circular buffing motions helps create that chiseled effect without looking too harsh.

4. Fan Brush | ELF Fan Brush PURPOSE: Nose contour or highlighting

This was my OG nose contour brush. If you’re just starting out in contouring your nose this type of brush will do you wonders. The brush does all the work for you. You can’t go wrong! (Unless you choose the wrong shade, then that’s a completely different problem all on it’s own)

5. Highlight Brush | Morphe M509 Deluxe Pointed Blender PURPOSE: Highlighting the high points of your face

6. Fluffy Blending Brush | Sigma E40 PURPOSE: Transition shade and over all blender

Gone are the days you’d only need 1 brush for the crease and transition shade. You are about to up your eye look game and use more brushes to get an even more defined look!

7. Crease Brush | Zoeva Luxe Soft Definer PURPOSE: Blown out crease blend

8. Pointed Crease Brush | Zoeva Luxe Crease PURPOSE: More precise crease blending and application

9. Fluffy Shader Brush | ELF C Brush PURPOSE: Brow bone shade application. Under the brow shade definer. Wash of color for the lid

THE EXTRA – CONGRATULATIONS! You’re no longer a beginner, nor an enthusiast. You are a certified makeup addict and welcome to the club! The minimalist makeup just doesn’t work for you and the enthusiast style is not cutting it anymore. You need variety and precision! You’re makeup game is so on point that you can’t do with just a few brushes in your kit. You need it all! Each brush is dependent on what product your going to use, what look you’re going for and what you need to achieve that sharp crisp lines or even that airbrushed makeup look! Here are the brushes that you HAVE to have but not necessarily need…

1. Round/Flat Buffer Brush | Morphe M439 PURPOSE: Powder/Liquid/Cream Foundation

2. Big Powder Brush | Morphe E41 PURPOSE: All over Powder Setting

3. Small Tapered Powder Brush | Morphe M438 PURPOSE: Highlighting & Setting

4. Thin Flat Contour Brush | Nars Ita Kabuki Brush PURPOSE: Sharp Crisp Contouring

5. Round Blush Brush | Morphe M530 PURPOSE: Airbrush Blush Finish (buff blush in circular motions)

6. Small Crease Blending Brush | Zoeva 224 Luxe Defined Crease PURPOSE: Detailed transition/crease blending

7. Small Tapered Crease Brush | Zoeva 231 Luxe Petit Crease PURPOSE: Crease detail

8. Small Detail Shader Brush | Zoeva 237 Detail Shader PURPOSE: Highlighting Inner Corners of the Eyes or application in small places

9. Pencil Brush | Zoeva 230 Luxe Pencil PURPOSE: Under eye blending or detail application

10. Liner Brush | Zoeva 317 Wing LinerZoeva 317 Wing Liner PURPOSE: Upgrade from using an angled brow brush to apply liner

*Phew*

That was definitely a long one…

And that’s pretty much it! I hope this post help you out somehow and gave you more clarity on what brushes you really need and what they’re used for. I know that this part of makeup can be overwhelming especially for a beginner which is why I really tried to make it as detailed as possible with as much information I can give without being too redundant. If you want a tutorial on how to use specific brushes and more techniques just let me know! I think that’s what gonna be the next “Every Makeup Lover’s Guide” topic. Stay tuned for next week’s post. Same time. Same place.

Thank you guys so much for reading! Subscribe to my Youtube Channel & make sure to follow me on my social media accounts; Instagram & Facebook, that is all @cescamandigma just like my blog name.

As always, all of the love and support is very much appreciated. Until the next post!

With Love, Cesca ♥

Wanna up your makeup game? What kind of makeup lover are you? MINIMALIST, ENTHUSIAST or EXTRA? Check out my latest post to find out! "Even the simplest tools can empower people to do great things..." That's exactly how I feel about makeup tools.

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ahfox886 · 3 years

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Tekken 6 Offline Ranking Patch

Players can move freely between fights, but when a group of enemies are encountered, the gameplay switches to the traditional, two-dimensional Tekken style. This mode originally only included offline single player. Namco released a patch on January 18, 2010 that allows online Co-op for Scenario Campaign. Tekken 6 offers new modes, expanded customization, and improved gameplay that is smoother than ever before. It also brings the series online for the time and revamps the usual Tekken Force mode into the Scenario Campaign mode - with branching level options and a more detailed plot. Destination Home 1.86 Patch v1.28: Patch v1.28 is now out! Here is the change logs/debug patch notes 8/27/2020. Best Regards, The Destination Home Team/Offline Content Assembly Team. Note this is a quick patch/fix as I noticed, that I forgot to add the original BGM source files to the LittleBigPlanet ™️ Playground Public space.

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Developed by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc., TEKKEN 6 brings the blockbuster fighting series onto multiple platforms for the first time in the history of the TEKKEN franchise, with stunning realism, uncompromising quality, major gameplay enhancements including the original Scenario Campaign mode, and the largest character roster ever seen in the TEKKEN series.

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TEKKEN 6 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is scheduled for launch across Europe and the PAL regions on 30th October, with the PSP version coming later this autumn.For more information on TEKKEN 6 visit www.tekken.com.

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